Nicole pulled her truck into the station lot. She grabbed her stetson from the passenger seat and put it on her head. She also grabbed a file folder with dozens of pages of police intelligence bulletins from her friend Diaz. She glanced over the information briefly before passing out the previous night, but knew she had a ton of work ahead of her, and a lot of explaining to do. In her focus, and exhaustion she forgot to charge her cell phone. It was early in Purgatory, the day shift beginning at 0600 hrs. She would call Waverly at a more decent hour she lamented.
As she walked towards the entrance of the station she heard a honking horn then an engine roar then the squeal of brakes as a red Jeep Wrangler slid to a stop just feet from where she walked, one tire up on the curb. A very angry looking Waverly Earp jumped out from the driver's side.
"Jesus!" Nicole yelled as she looked at the angry woman before her.
"You don't get to do that!" Waverly shouted as she stalked towards Nicole. Waverly poked Nicole's chest with her index finger as she punctuated each word, "You. Don't. Disappear."
Nicole accidentally dropped the file onto the ground, then held Waverley's hand between both of hers.
"I'm sorry." she said sheepishly. "I just..."
"No." Waverly cut her off. "See maybe it's me. My mother left, my sister Willa disappeared, Wynnona was gone until our Uncle died...maybe I'm the common denominator here. I mean what the heck is it?"
Nicole shook her head. "Waves..."
"No Nicole I mean it. We can't hide from each other, and now that I've found you I can't..." Waverly stopped herself from finishing her sentence. She closed her eyes and bit her lip. She wanted to say 'I can't lose you.' But it was so much. So much so fast.
Nicole gently raised Nicole's hand to her lips. She gently kissed the back of her hand. "I don't mean to keep scaring you." she said.
Waverly smiled at the memory of when Nicole fist said that to her. Her anger slowly began to melt "I was gonna hunt you down you know. I had drones and surveillance planes on standby. I ordered a bloodhound on Amazon." Waverly lightly joked as she filed with the zipper of Nicole's police coat.
"I don't have any doubt. And I'm sorry. I just needed to sort through some things. I needed-" Nicole blew out a breath. "I needed to remind myself why I'm here, and what I'm prepared to do to defend this town. And I needed to make sure that what happened to Wynonna and I..." Nicole stopped her sentence. She looked down at her feet. "I promise I won't let anything like that happen again Waves."
Waverly smiled. "I'm glad you said that, I know it won't. We have to talk. All of us. It will make so much more sense."
Nicole nodded in agreement. "We do, but I have some business to take care of."
Waverly raised an eyebrow in question.
"I won't be off the grid. I promise." Nicole said with a smile, but her face quickly got serious. She lowered her voice as she spoke. "I found things Waves. Things that link some of these unexplained events to an outlaw motorcycle gang, possible judicial misconduct...I have to be careful here but I think Purgatory might be ground zero for some pretty bad stuff."
"You have no idea." Waverly muttered under her breath. Nicole turned her head questioningly. Waverly was impressed with the Officer before her. Nicole was smart. She was putting together information at dangerously fast pace. More now then ever Waverly knew she had to bring Nicole Haught into the "inner sanctum" so to speak that was Black Badges. It shouldn't be hard to convince Xavier Dolls to accept her. She was smart, she was tough, and she was dedicated. Very few "mere mortals" faced off with a powerful Revenant and lived to tell the tale. That alone should get her into their Scooby squad.
Nicole bent down and picked up her file off the snowy ground.
Waverly took a step forward as Nicole stood. They were pressed chest to chest. The cold morning air causing their breath to come out in puffs of white in front of their faces. Waverly smiled put her hands on Nicole's shoulders and reached up on tiptoe to press her lips gently to Nicole's. There was a catch in Nicole's breath and a moment of hesitation. This was a parking lot of a public building well within sight of the streets of small town Purgatory. The last thing she wanted was to further complicate Waverly's life. Any hesitation melted away as she responded to Waverley's probing mouth. They kissed and Nicole felt a spreading warmth flush through her chest. This. This was everything. They broke apart breathlessly at the sound of a passing car.
Both smiled sheepishly at each other. Waverly could hardly believe that the fierce fighter she saw on that dash cam video was the same tender and gentle woman standing before her.
Without warning two officers ran out of the station door.
"Haught let's go! Freddie Bode's girlfriend just called. They had a huge domestic on his ranch, and he's a liquored up and threatening her and her kids."
Nicole pushed the file folder into Waverly's hands. She turned and ran towards her patrol car, jumping into the Crown Victoria, and flicking on the lights. She turned the car towards the exit and stopped momentarily. She gazed out the window and kissed the palm of her left hand before placing it flush against the window. Waverly nodded and put her hand to her heart. Both smiled. As Nicole Haught sped down Main street, lights flashing and sirens wailing, Waverly exhaled and placed her hand in her coat pocket to retrieve her phone. The name the officer had called out was Freddie Bode. Frederick Bode was more like it Waverly thought. The name stuck in her mind from her years of research. Bode. A man who was part of the crew that killed her great great grandfather's brother Morgan. A dangerous Revenant.
She pressed the screen and put the phone to her ear. Wynonna's hung over voice came through the speaker. "If this isn't a booty call or someone from Publisher's Clearing House..."
"The only ass you're getting is of the Revenant species. Get up!"
"Ew..." she heard Wynonna groan as the phone obviously tumbled to the floor. She heard a muffled male voice conversing with Wynonna. Her eyebrows raised. Was it Dolls? Or maybe even Doc? Or even...barf...Champ?
Wynonna got back on the line. "I'm calling the calvary Pilgrim. Meet you at the station."
Waverly walked inside of the station. She placed Nicole's file on her desk. She then walked into the Black Badges Office. She opened the bulletin board and began gathering maps and paperwork. She said a silent prayer for Nicole to be safe until they could get there. She grabbed a dated, faded photo of Frederick Bode. It was a death pose, and pennies covered his eyes. "Times up shiteater." she said to the photo in a determined tone.
No one messed with the Earps and got away with it.